Cop3  • 


PROGRAM  OF  EXERCISES 


■1 


NORTH   CAROLINA   DAY 


(MclVER  MEMORIAL  DAY) 


FRIDAY,  DECEMBER  14,  1906 


CHARLES  DUNCAN  MclVER 


1860—1906 


ORATOR,  EDUCATIONAL  STATESMAN,  TEACHER 


.A 

w 


ISSUED  FROM  THE  OFFICE  OF  THE 

STATE  SUPERINTENDENT  OF  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION 

RALEIGH 


"It  has  been  too  common  a  political  teaching  that 
the  best  government  is  that  which  levies  the  smallest 

TAXES.  The  future  will  modify  that  doctrine  AND 
TEACH  THAT  LIBERAL  TAXATION,  FAIRLY  LEVIED  AND  PROP- 
ERLY  APPLIED,    IS   THE   CHIEF    MARK   OF   A   CIVILIZED   PEOPLE. 

The  savage  pays  no  tax/^ — Charles  Duncan  Mclver. 


Digitized  by  tine  Internet  Arcinive 

in  2010  with  funding  from 

University  of  North  Carolina  at  Chapel  Hill 


http://www.archive.org/details/programofexercis05conn 


C'llAKLES    Dl  NCAX    ^IclVER. 


PROGRAM  OF  EXERCISES 


NORTH   CAROLINA   DAY 


(MclVER  MEMORIAL  DAY) 


FRIDAY,  DECEMBER  14,  1906 


COMPILED  BY 


R.    D.  W.    CONNOR 


ISSUED  FROM  THE  OFFICE  OF  THE 

STATE  SUPERINTENDENT  OF  PUBLIC  INSTRUCTION, 

RALEIGH,   N.   C. 


CHAPTER  164 

OF  THE   PUBLIC  LAV/S  OF  1901. 


An   Act  to   Provide  for  the   Celebration    of   North   Carolina   Day 
in  the   Public  Schools. 


TJie  Gc>icj-(il  _ls.s'( ;»/_//.'/  of  yarth  (''<irolina  do  enai-l : 

Skctiox  1.  That  the  12ih  (hiy  of  Octolier  in  each  ami  every  year,  to 
he  caUed  "Xoitli  Carolina  Day,"  may  l)e  devuteil,  by  appropriate  exer- 
eises  in  the  ]iuljlic  schools  of  tlie  state,  to  tlie  considei'ation  of  some 
topic  or  to]iics  of  onr  state  history,  to  be  selected  liy  the  superintendent 
of  puldie  instnu-tion:  Provided,  that  if  the  said  day  shall  fall  on  Sat- 
urday or  Sunday,  then  the  celebration  shall  occur  on  tlie  Monday  next 
following:  ]'rovidcd  further,  that  if  the  said  day  sliall  fall  at  a  time 
when  any  such  school  may  not  be  in  session,  tlie  celebration  may  be  held 
■within  one  month  from  the  beginninff  of  tlu'  term,  unless  the  superin- 
tendent of  public  instruction  shall  designate  some  other  time. 

Sec.  2.  This  act  shall  be  in  force  from  and  after  its  ratification. 

In  the  General  A.ssembly  read  three  times,  and  ratilied  this  the  9th 
day  of  February.  A.  D.  1001. 


CONTENTS. 


The  Old  Xoutii  Statk William  Gaston. 

Charles  Duncan  McIver.     A  Sonnet,        .      .      .        William   C.  Smith. 
Charles  Duncan  McIver.     A   Sketch,        .      .      .        R.  D.  W.  Connor. 

The  Coronach, Sir  Walter  Scott. 

Charles  D.  McIver  as  I  Knew  Him, J.  Y.  Joyner. 

"He  Died  Poor  that  He  Might  Make  Others  Rich.'"  Josephus  Daniels. 

America, ,S'.  J^.  Smith. 

Stories  of  Charles  D.  McIver, J.  T.  Joyner. 

Southern  Educational  Policies Charles  D.  McIver. 

Ho!   For  Carolina, William  B.  Harrell. 


PREFACE. 

To  tlic  Teacher: 

We  have  deemed  it  wise  and  j^roper  to  turn  aside  this  year  from  our 
]ilan  of  eidfl)ratina'  Xortli  Carolina  Day  in  the  pul)]ic  schools  by  the  study 
of  the  great  events  in  the  past  history  of  the  state  in  chronological  order 
to  let  the  children  study  the  life  and  character  of  one  who,  in  the 
years  to  come,  will  l>e  recognized  as  the  greatest  educational  leader 
of  our  day  and  as  a  great  central  figure  in  the  educational  and  industrial 
development  of  our  state.  We  wish  this  day  to  he  devoted,  therefore. 
to  a  reverent  study  of  the  life,  character,  and  unselfish  service  of 
Charles  D.  Melver,  the  children's  friend,  the  teacher's  friend,  the  state's 
friend,  the  eflfective  and  courageous  champion  of  all  that  vitally 
affected  the  interests  of  these. 

We  know  no  more  efTective  means  of  teaching  to  tlie  children  of  this 
generation  the  all-important  lesson  of  civic  service  and  civic  duty,  of 
inspiring  them  with  the  higliest  ideal  of  patriotism  and  right  living 
and  of  inculcating  in  them  the  hot  educational  doctrines  than  the 
study  of  the  splendid  objectdes-on  in  all  to  be  found  in  the  simple  story 
of  the  life  and  teachings  of  this  man. 

Every  child  in  North  Carolina  ought  to  contribute  something  to  the 
fund  for  the  erection  of  an  heroic  bronze  statue  to  his  memory.  Such 
contribution  would  Ije  an  olijcctdesson  to  each  child,  never  to  be  forgotten, 
in  properly  honoring  the  memory  of  a  great  teacher  who  imselfishly 
devoted  his  life  to  the  children  and  the  state.  Let  every  teacher  urge 
every  child  to  bring  on  North  Carolina  Day  a  contribution  to  this  fund. 

Forward  all  contributions  by  post-office  order,  if  possible,  to  me. 

Very  truly  yours, 

J.  Y.  JOYNER, 

Superintendent  Public  Instruction. 
NOVEMBEK  5. 1906. 


THE  OLD  NORTH  STATE. 


BY    \VILLIA:\r   GASTON. 


[This  was  Dr.  Mclver's  favorite  song-.  He  made  it  the  rallyint?  song-  of  the  college,  and 
had  the  students  sing  it  at  every  commencement  and  on  all  other  public  occasions.  It  was 
a  joy  and  inspiration  to  watch  his  face  as  the  six  hundred  girls  sang  it.— J.  Y.  J.] 


Carolina!     Carolina!     Heaven's  blessings  attend  her! 
While  we  live  we  will  cherish,  protect,  and  defend  her! 
Though  the  seorncr  may  sneer  at  and  witlings  defame  her, 
Our  hearts  swell  with  gladness  whenever  we  name  her. 

Hurrah!     Hurrah!     the  Old  North  State  forever! 
Hurrah!     Hurrah!    the  good  Old  North  State! 

Though  she  envies  not  others  their  nitrited  glory, 
Say,  whose  name  stands  foremost  in  Liberty's  story? 
Though  too  true  to  herself  e'er  to  crouch  to  oppression, 
Who  can  yield  to  just  rule  more  loyal  submission? 

Hurrah,  etc. 

Plain  and  artless  her  sons,  but  whose  doors  open  faster 
At  the  knock  of  a  stranger,  or  the  tale  of  disaster? 
How  like  to  the  rudeness  of  their  dear  native  mountains, 
With  rich  ore  in  their  bosoms  and  life  in  their  fountains. 

Hurrah,  etc. 

Then  let  all  who  love  us,  love  the  land  that  we  live  in 
(As  happy  a  region  as  on  this  side  of  Heaven). 
Where  Plenty  and  Freedom,  Love  and  Peace  smile  before  us. 
Raise  aloud,  raise  together  the  heart-thrilling  chorus ! 

Hurrah!    Hurrah!    the  Old  North  State  forever! 
Hurrah!    Hurrah!    the  good  Old  North  State! 


CHARLES  DUNCAN  MclVER. 


\villia:\[  c.  smith. 


Rest,  son  of  Carolina,  sweotly  rest : 

The  boon  long  self-denied  now  meetly  thine. 

Obedience  yield  we  to  the  call  divine. 
Our  comfort  this — the  ^Master  knoweth  best. 

He  knoweth  best,  yet  sore  we  feel  our  need ; 
So  great  the  void,  we  may  not  smile  nor  sing. 
But,  bowed  in  grief,  our  altar-gift  we  l)ring 

And  mid  our  tears  look  mutely  up  and  plead. 
Grant  us  with  him  to  see  where  honor  lies; 

To  build  for  God  and  man,  and  not  for  self; 
To  face  the  future  witli  untroubled  eyes, 

Intent  on  lasting  service,  not  on  pelf. 
Thus  life  lives  on  its  purpose  to  fulfil 
\Yhen  weaiw  evelids  close  and  tired  hands  e:ro\v  still. 


CHARLES  DUNCAN  MclVER. 


15Y  R.  D.   W.  CONNOR. 


THE  FARMER  BOY. 

To-day  there  are  thousands  of  boys  and  jrirls  in  North  Carolina  who 
are  at  school  in  pretty  school-houses,  sitting  in  comfortable  desks, 
reciting  to  good  teachers,  and  looking  fonvard  to  bright  futures,  because 
Charles  D.  ]\lclver  was  their  friend.  They  may  never  have  seen  him, 
and  he  may  never  have  seen  tliem:  but  he  loved  thom;  worked  for 
them;  spoke  for  them;  wrote  for  them;  fought  and  won  battles  for 
them.  His  picture  ought  to  hang  before  the  eyes  of  CA'ery  school  child 
in  North  Carolina.  His  name  ought  to  be  on  their  tongues.  They  ought 
to  know  by  heart  the  story  of  his  life. 

Charles  Duncan  Mclver,  the  Children's  Friend,  was  born  in  Moore 
county,  in  the  Old  North  State,  September  27,  1860.  The  names  of 
most  of  the  people  living  in  the  neighborhood  began,  like  his  own,  with 
"Mac,"'  for  these  people  were  descendants  of  Scotch  Highlanders.  His 
own  grandfather  was  born  in  the  Highlands  of  Scotland  and  came 
to  North  Carolina  when  he  was  only  eight  years  old.  So  Charles  D. 
Mclver  was  the  grandson  of  a  Scotch  Highlander. 

-Last  year  in  our  "North  Carolina  Day"  exercises  Ave  learned  that^.the 
Highlanders  are  "a  strong  and  active  race,  large  in  stature,  well-devel- 
oped in  body,  robust  in  health."  They  are  economical,  thrifty,  and  char- 
itable. They  are  brave  and  patriotic.  Tliey  are  generous  and  true  in 
their  friendships.  They  love  the  truth  and  fear  God.  Tliey  believe  in 
building  churches  and  schools.  They  regard  education  and  religion  as 
the  chief  concerns  of  life. 

Such  a  man  was  the  father  of  Charles  D.  Mclver;  such  a  woman  was 
his  mother.  Together  they  made  him  such  a  man.  Tliere  were  two 
things  the  father  always  insisted  upon  his  boys  doing:  first,  to  attend 
regularly  the  best  school  within  reach ;  second,  to  work  regularly  on  the 
farm  on  Saturdays  and  during  vacations.  The  best  schools  then  were 
the  private  schools,  and  to  one  of  these  Charles  D.  Mclver  was  sent.  He 
was  a  good  student,  for  he  knew  too  well  the  value  of  an  education  to 
waste  his  time  in  school.  He  was  a  good  worker  on  the  farm,  for  he 
knew  too  well  the  value  of  the  lessons  learned  in  the  field  to  waste  his 
holidays  ai^d  vacations  in  idleness.  "Saturdays  were  as  regular  work- 
days for  young  Mclver  as  for  any  of  the  employees  on  the  farm.  He 
escaped  no  kind  of  farm  labor,  from  planting,  harvesting,  splitting  rails, 
minding  the  gap,   log-rolling,  corn-shucking,   piling  brush,  and  digging 


ditches,  to  iiIo\\ing-  a  deaf  imile  in  a  new  ;i'i<:mnd  with  a  liull-tonLiUC  plow. 
Xo  loafera  were  allowed  on  that  farm.  Idleness  was  considered  an 
unpardcnalde   sin."* 

\(;uii^  AIcl\<T  learned  1o  love  \\-ork,,  wliether  ^\•itll  his  books  or 
iiehind  the  plow,  lie  used  to  say  that  the  hardest  work  lie  ever  tried 
to  do  was  restin^u'.  After  he  became  a  man  his  friends  often  beLr,2;ed  him 
to  take  a  vacation  and  rest.  To  one  of  them  who  told  him  he  was  ruin- 
ing his  health  l)y  hard  work,  he  said:  "I  cannot  re-t  until  my  work  is 
done.  ]\Iy  joy  is  in  my  woi'k.  1  had  rather  do  it  the  best  I  can  and 
live  a  shorter  time." 

THE    UNIVERSITY    STUDENT. 

\\'hen  he  was  seventeen  years  old  he  left  the  farm  and  neinhborhood 
scliool  a)id  went  to  the  University  of  North  Carolina.  Thei'e,  too,  lie 
worked  hard  for  four  years.  When  he  was  graduated  in  ISSl  he  was 
one  of  the  best  scholars  in  his  class.  He  stood  first  in  Greek  and  French, 
and  shared  with  three  others  the  first  place  in  Latin. 

He  made  many  valuable  friends  at  the  university.  Some  of  them 
are  Cliarles  B.  Aycoek,  former  Governor  of  North  Carolina:  Edwin  A. 
Alderman,  a  great  orator  and  educator:  James  Y.  Joyner.  State  Super- 
intendent of  Public  Instruction,  and  many  other  such  men. 

But  the  two  men  who  had  most  influence  on  him  were  Dr.  Kemp  P. 
Battle,  then  president  of  the  university,  and  Dr.  George  T.  Winston,  then 
professor  of  Latin.  Dr.  ]\lclver  said  that  Dr.  Battle  regarded  "the 
people  of  North  Carolina  as  a  great  big  family,  each  member  of  which 
owes  to  eveiy  other  member  afft'ctionate  sympathy  and  loyal  support  in 
any  worthy  undertaking.  He  loves  the  people  of  this  state.  *  *  * 
Every  sprig  oi  grass  and  every  bird  that  touches  the  soil  of  North 
Carolina  is  dear  to  him.      •■■  *     He  is  proud  of  our  history  and  is 

proud  that  he  is  proud  of  it.  "     *     No  man  can  come  under  his  influ- 

ence" without  wishing  "to  be  of  service  to  so  good  a  state  and  so  great 
a  people.'' 

"The  other  man  to  whom  I  feel  indebted  is  Dr.  George  T.  Winston," 
-who  inspires  "in  all  the  youths  he  touches  self-reliance  and  the  audacity 
to  undertake  large  tasks." 

The  spirits  of  these  two  great  teachers  united  in  Charles  D.  ]\lclver. 
He,  too,  came  to  think  of  the  people  of  North  Carolina  as  "a  great  big 
family."  He  was  proud  of  her  history.  He  loved  "every  sprig  of  grass 
and  every  bird  that  touches  her  soil."  He  wished  "to  be  of  service  to  so 
good  a  state  and  so  great  a  people."  And  he,  too,  had  "self-reliance  and 
audacity  to  undertake  large  tasks."  His  great  work  in  North  Carolina 
could  not  have  been  done  had  he  not  loved  the  state  and  had  faith  in  her 
power  to  do  great  things.  This  work  is  a  splendid  example  of  the  rich- 
ness that  comes  to  the  state  through  the  life  and  work  of  her  teachers. 


Isaac  Erwin  Avery  in  the  Charlotte  Obscri-er. 


HIS  FIRST  VOTE. 

After  his  graduation  yoinig  Mclver  went  to  Durham  to  teacli  in  a 
private  seliool.  So  great  was  his  success  that  Ijefore  the  chxse  of  his  first 
year  he  was  made  principal  of  the  schooL  \  ^Yhile  he  was  teaching  in 
Durham  an  election  was  held  upon  the  question  of  a  local  tax  for 
a  public  graded  school.  If  the  people  voted  for  the  tax  and  started  the 
public  school,  INlcIver  knew  that  he  would  have  to  close  his  private 
school.  But  he  knew,  too,  that  there  were  many  children  in  the  to^vn 
who  would  never  get  an  education  unless  the  public  schools  were  estab- 
lished. What  should  he  do?  Should  he  vote  for  the  tax  and  against 
his  own  school:  or  should  he  vote  against  the  tax  and  for  his  own 
school?  It  did  not  take  him  long  to  decide  this  question,  for  he  was 
anxious  "to  be  of  service"'  to  the  children.  He  was  willing  to  close  the 
doors  of  his  own  school-house  if  he  might  only  open  the  doors  of  the 
public  school  where  all  the  children  could  go.  He  cared  less  for  his  own 
welfare  than  for  the  welfare  of  the  children.  So  he  worked  for  the 
local  tax  and  on  election  day  voted  for  it  himself  and  persuaded  other 
men  to  vote  for  it.  He  was  always  proud  of  the  fact  that  his  first  vote 
was  cast  for  a  local  tax  for  public  education.^. 

His  OAvn  school  was  closed  when  the  graded  school  opened;  and  the 
people  of  Durham  at  once  called  upon  him  to  teach  in  the  graded  school. 
He  was  principal  of  this  school  for  one  and  one-half  years  and  then 
went  to  Winston  to  teach  in  the  graded  school  there  which  had  been 
started  by  Calvin  H.  Wiley.  After  nearly  two  years'  work  in  Winston, 
he  became  principal  of  the  Literaiy  Department  of  Peace  Institute  in 
Raleigh,  where  he  remained  until  June.  1889. 

A   GREAT  SCHOOL   FOR  WOMEN. 

CDuring  all  these  years  he  had  Avorked  hard  to  improve  himself  as  a 
teacher.  He  visited  other  schools;  talked  with  other  teachers;  read 
many  books  on  teaching.  During  his  vacations  he  had  taught  in  sum- 
mer schools  and  institutes  for  teachers. \  From  this  work  he  learned 
that  the  greatest  need  of  North  Carolina  was  the  education  of  all  her 
children.  He  saw  that  the  state  must  have  better  school-houses  and 
longer  school  terms ;  but  above  all,  he  saw  that  she  needed  better  school- 
teachers. He  knew  that  no  school  is  anj'  better  than  its  teachers,  and  the 
great  question  was,  How  can  the  teachers  be  improved  ? 

Mclver  found  the  answer  to  this  question.  He  said  the  state  should 
build  a  great  school  for  teaching  and  training  teachers.  Such  a  school 
is  called  a  "Xormal"'  School  or  College.  In  1889  Dr.  Mclver  made  a, 
great  speech  before  the  Teachers'  Assembly  in  favor  of  a  Normal  College. 
The  Teachers'  Assembly  then  appointed  a  committee  to  go  to  Raleigh 
and  urge  the  legislature  to  vote  money  for  such  a  school.  Mclver  was 
placed  at  the  head  of  this  committee  and  worked  hard  with  the  members 
of  the  legislature;  but  they  would  not  do  as  he  asked. 


10 

Instead  of  voting  for  the  Normal  School,  the  legislature  deeided  to 
send  a  man  into  every  eonnly  in  North  Carolina  to  hold  meetings  and 
teach  the  teachers  and  to  talk  to  the  people  about  the  education  of  their 
cliihlren.  Two  men  were  seh'cted  fcjr  this  worlv — Charles  D.  Melver  and 
Edwin  A.  Alderman.  They  began  their  work  in  September,  1880.  They 
met  the  te;iehcrs  of  every  county  in  thf'  state  and  taught  them  how  to 
teach.  They  held  pul)iic  meetings  of  preachers,  fanners,  lawyers,  mer- 
chants, editors,  meclianics,  and  evei'yl>ody  els(^  who  would  come.  They 
made  eloquent  speeches  to  them  aliout  the  educition  of  their  children. 
They  urged  them  to  vote  taxes  on  their  properly  to  support  schools. 
They  spoke  about  the  Normal  College  for  teachers  and  urged  the  people 
to  demand  that  tlieir  legislators  vote  the  money  for  it.  Everywhere  they 
went  the  people  became  more  than  ever  interested  in  educatiim  ami  in  the 
improvement  of  their  schools. 

Wlien  the  legislature  met  in  ISHl  IMcIver  again  went  lo  Raleigh  to 
woik  for  the  Normal  College.  It  was  hard  work,  for  there  were  many 
people  who  were  opposed  to  such  a  college.  But  he  lost  no  chance  to 
talk  to  them — in  the  capitol.  on  the  streets,  in  the  hotels,  wherever  he 
could  get  a  member  to  listen  to  him.  lie  told  them  that  the  only  hope 
tens  of  tliousands  of  lioys  and  girls  in  the  state  had  to  get  an  education 
was  in  the  puldic  schools.  ]Most  of  the  teachers  in  these  public  schools 
were  women.  For  the  good  of  the  cliihlren.  then,  the  state  ought  to  have 
a  great  college  where  these  women  teachers  could  be  educated  and 
trained  how  to  teach. 

If  the  state  will  build  such  a  college,  he  said,  tliousands  of  girls  will 
become  educated  women,  \\ithont  such  a  school  most  of  them  would 
grow  up  in  a  state  of  ignorance.  Ignorance  is  the  worst  kind  of  sla\ery. 
Such  a  college  would  free  the  white  girls  of  North  Carolina  from  this 
curse.  Besides,  North  Carolina  would  then  secure  teachers  better  than 
she  had  ever  had,  "who  wall  bless  her  because  she  has  blessed  them."' 

Dr.  McIver  was  so  deeply  in  earnest  and  worked  so  hard  that  he 
persuaded  the  legislature  to  vote  the  monej^  for  the  college.  It  is 
called  the  State  Normal  and  Industrial  College  for  Women  and  is 
located  at  Greensboro.  Dr.  McIver  was  elected  president  and  remained 
president  until  his  death,  a  period  of  fourteen  years. 

During  these  years  the  college  has  had  wonderful  growth.  Tlie  two 
or  three  small  buildings  on  ten  acres  of  ground  have  grown  to  eleven 
biiildings  on  one  hundred  and  thirty  acres  of  ground.  The  number  of 
teachers  in  the  college  has  increased  fi'om  fifteen  to  fifty.  More  than 
three  thousand  young  women  have  been  students  there.  They  are  daugh- 
ters of  rich  men  and  poor  men;  of  preachers,  doctors,  and  lawyers;  of 
merchants,  manufacturers,  and  farmers;  of  mechanics,  engineers,  and 
day  laborers ;  of  men  working  in  almost  every  form  of  honest  labor. 
They  have  come  from  the  country,  towns,  and  cities.  Girls  from  every 
county  in  the  .state  have  been  students  there;  and  students  of  the  Nor- 
mal College  have  taught  school  in  everv  countv.     INIore  than  two  thou- 


11 

sand  teachers  have  been  trained  at  this  great  college  how  to  teach;  and 
they  have  taught  more  than  two  hundred  thousand  North  Carolina  boys 
and  girls.  Truly,  as  Dr.  Mclver  said,  these  women  have  blessed  North 
Carolina  because  she  has  blessed  them. 

Charles  D.  Mclver  built  this  great  college.  It  is  "not  a  thing  of  brick 
and  stone,"  but  a  great  school  with  "'an  open  door  of  opportunity  to 
every  worthy  white  girl,  however  poor,  however  rich,  within  the  borders 
of  the  state — a  means  of  fitting  her  for  good  and  useful  citizenship." 
It  is  a  college  in  which  is  taught  "sound  learning,  liberal  culture,  earn- 
est living,  and  high  thinking."'  It  is  "the  product  of  the  unselfish  love 
and  labor  of  one  man" — Charles  D.  Mclver. 

THE   EDUCATIONAL    LEADER. 

The  building  of  the  State  Normal  and  Industrial  College  is  the  greatest 
Avork  done  in  North  Carolina  within  the  last  twenty-five  years.  If  Dr. 
Mclver  had  done  nothing  else,  this  work  alone  would  place  him  among 
the  greatest  men  of  North  Carolina.  But  he  did  much  more.  Wherever 
there  was  a  word  to  be  spoken  in  the  cause  of  education,  especially  the 
education  of  Southern  boys  and  girls,  his  voice  was  heard.  "No  meeting 
of  Southern  educators  seemed  complete  without  him ;  no  educational 
program  satisfactory  until  his  name  appeared  on  it."" 

Three  years  ago  a  leading  North  Carolina  paper  expressed  the  gen- 
eral opinion  of  his  work.  "Dr.  Mclver,"  it  said,  "has  been  a  leading 
force  in  every  movement  looking  for  progress,  educational  or  otherwise, 
in  North  Carolina.  *  *  *  When  the  history  of  this  decade  is  written, 
the  story  of  the  public  services  rendered  his  state  by  Charles  Duncan 
Mclver  will  be  one  of  the  brightest  pages  in  the  splendid  volume  of 
patriotic  achievement.  There  is  not  a  man  in  the  state  who  has  made 
himself  felt  so  powerfully  and  so  helpfully  for  progress."! 

In  July,  1905,  a  great  New  York  magazine.  The  Outlook,  expressed 
the  view  held  of  him  in  other  sections  of  the  country.  "In  the  Southern 
states,"  it  said,  "there  is  no  man  better  entitled  to  be  called  a  champion 
of  public  schools,  and  of  the  whole  idea  of  popular  education,  than 
Charles  Duncan  Mclver  of  North  Carolina.  *  "■  ■'  He  is  a  man  of 
intense  earnestness,  energy,  insight,  and  common  sense.  For  the  past 
twelve  years  his  voice  has  been  raised  in  behalf  of  popular  education, 
not  only  in  every  county  in  his  own  state,  but  throughout  the  South  and 
in  great  national  assemblies.  There  is  no  abler  speaker  on  this  subject 
than  Dr.  Mclver.  He  has  been  the  soul  of  the  forward  movement  in  his 
region."! 

This  "forward  movement"  has  been  largely  a  movement  for  the 
improvement  of  rural  schools.  A  few  years  ago  several  patriotic  men 
from  various  sections  of  our  country,  who  are  interested  in  Southern 


*  N.  W.  Walker  in  The  University  Magazine,  October,  1906. 
t  Quoted  in  MS.  of  Prof.  W.  C.  Smith. 


12 

echiculiou,  came  togetlicr  and  formed  the  "Southern  Eilncation  Board." 
Tlieir  purpose  is  to  lielp  impro\e  the  I'ural  schools  of  the  Soutli.  ])r. 
Mciver  was  one  of  the  leading-  members  of  this  board.  When  the  bfiard 
decided  to  send  speakers  all  over  the  South  to  talk  to  the  people  about 
education,  they  put  Dr.  Alelver  at  the  head  of  tliat  great  work.  Pei'ha])s 
no  man  in  our  country  did  mure  for  the  education  of  the  boys  and  girls 
on  Southern  faims  1han  he  did. 

Not  only  did  he  wurk  liim-idf.  Ijut  he  persuaded  many  others,  men  and 
■women,  to  liglit  for  the  cause  of  the  children.  Proud  of  the  fact  that  the 
first  vote  he  had  ever  cast  was  a  vote  for  local  taxation  for  schools,  by 
his  great  eloquence  and  earnestness  he  persuaded  thousands  of  others  to 
follow  his  example.  Local  taxation  for  longer  terras,  better  school- 
houses,  better  teachers,  and  better  supervision — this  was  his  plea.  Elo- 
quently, earnestly,  and  successfully  he  pleaded  the  cause  of  the  back- 
woods boy  and  the  cross-roads  girl  when  they  had  no  other  powerful 
friend  to  help  them. 

Invitations  to  speak  came  to  him,  not  only  from  all  over  North  Caro- 
lina, but  from  the  South,  the  North,  the  East,  and  the  West.  Often  he 
had  to  make  liis  appointments  months  in  advance.  He  went,  not  where 
he  could  make  most  reputation  for  himself,  but  where  he  could  do 
most  good  to  others.  If  any  doubt  arose  the  chances  were  nearly 
always  in  favor  of  the  smaller  and  weaker  community.  The  message 
was  carried  to  the  few  hundreds  that  gathered  at  the  cross-roads  store 
or  the  country  church  rather  than  to  tlie  larger  numlier  who  assembled 
in  opera  house  or  city  hall.  The  message,  too,  had  reference  to  the 
special  needs  of  time  and  place,  and  so  was  a  sowing  of  good  seed  in 
suitable  soil.  It  is  safe  to  say  that  Charles  D.  IMclver  never  addressed 
an  audience  without  having  a  distinct  end  in  view,  and  that  end  the 
doing  of  good  works.  There  are  few  places  in  North  Carolina  where 
his  voice  has  not  been  raised  in  behalf  of  some  public  measure.  Large 
audiences,  too,  in  great  cities  far  removed  from  his  native  state,  have 
greeted  this  educational  leader,  and  from  his  lips  have  heard  whole- 
some truths  relative  to  our  educational  progress.  Thus  he  has  been 
invited  to  make  educational  addresses  in  more  tlian  one-half  of  the  states 
in  the  Union.* 

He  was  always  welcomed  in  large  gatherings  in  all  parts  of  the 
country  among  the  great  leaders  in  our  nation.  But  Charles  D.  ]\lclver 
w^as  never^  so  happy  as  when  helping  a  small  rural  community  in  his 
own  state. 

Many  honors  came  to  Charles  D.  Mciver.  He  did  not  seek  them;  they 
sought  him.  The_y  sought  him  because  he  thought  more  of  the  welfare 
of  others  than  of  his  own  ambition.  In  1S92  he  was  president  of  the 
North  Carolina  Teachers'  Assembly.  In  1905  he  was  president  of  the 
Southern  Educational  Association.     He  held  several  high  and   responsi- 

*  MS.  of  W.  C.  Smith. 


ble  positions  in  the  National  Educational  Association,  thr'  largest  educa- 
tional association  in  the  Avorld.  He  was  president  of  the  Normal 
ochool  Department;  and  in  tlie  summer  of  1905  came  within  a  few 
votes  of  being  elected  president  of  the  association  itself.  His  friends 
believe  that,  if  he  had  lived,  he  would  have  been  elected  president  in 
1907.  He  was  a  member  of  the  board  of  trustees  of  the  University  of 
North  Carolina  and  always  gave  the  university  his  loyal  support.  Tlie 
university  loved  to  honor  him  and  conferred  upon  him  the  honorary 
degrees  of  Doctor  of  Letters  and  Doctor  of  Laws.  He  was  offered  posi- 
tions in  colleges  of  other  states  at  salaries  higher  than  the  one  he  was 
receiving.  More  than  once  he  was  asked  to  accept  responsible  business 
positions  paying  salaries  from  two  to  four  times  as  much  as  the  state 
paid  him.  But  no  amount  of  money  could  tempt  him  to  leave  the  college 
he  loved  or  to  forsake  the  cause  of  the  children  of  North  Carolina.  Had 
he  yielded  to  these  temptations,  he  might  have  left  wealth  to  his  widow 
and  children;  but  choosing  rather  to  serve  others,  he  left  them  the 
glory  of  his  name.    He  died  poor  that  he  might  make  others  rich. 

Dr.  Mclver  was  most  happy  in  his  home  life.  While  he  was  teaching 
in  Winston  he  was  married  to  Miss  Lula  V.  Martin,  also  a  teacher. 
Four  children,  a  son  and  three  daughters,  have  added  happiness  to 
their  home.  A  simple  home  was  his,  blessed  by  love  and  kindness  and 
culture  and  trust  in  God. 

DEATH. 

The  greatest  ambition  in  Dr.  Mclver's  life  was  to  be  of  service  to 
others.  It  was  while  he  was  rendering  a  service  to  his  city  and  to  his 
state  that  he  met  death.  On  the  17th  of  September,  1906,  he  went  to 
Raleigh  as  a  member  of  a  committee  from  the  city  of  Greensboro  to  wel- 
come William  Jennings  Bryan  to  North  Carolina.  Returning  from  Ral- 
eigh he  was  attacked  by  a  severe  pain  in  his  chest;  and  before  medical 
aid  could  reach  him  fell  dead  in  the  arms  of  one  of  his  friends.  A  lai-ge 
crowd  had  gathered  at  the  little  station  at  Burlington  to  hear  the  great 
Nebraska  orator,  but  at  his  first  words  their  cheers  and  applause  died 
away:   smiles  became  tears,  joy  changed  to  grief. 

"I  am  sure  that  you  will  agree  with  us,"  said  Mr.  Bryan,  "that  this 
is  not  the  time  or  occasion  for  a  political  speech,  when  I  tell  you  that 
just  after  we  left  Durham  one  of  our  party.  Dr.  Charles  D.  Molver,  sud- 
denly died.  He  was  the  man  who  first  invited  me  to  North  Carolina 
twelve  years  ago.  1  have  never  been  to  your  state  since  but  that  he  was 
on  the  reception  committee  and  the  first  to  greet  and  clieer  me. 
When  I  recently  reached  New  York  from  abroad  Dr.  Mclver  was  there 
to  greet  me  and  invite  me  to  North  Carolina. 

"His  life,  perhaps  more  than  that  of  any  man  I  knew  as  well,  illus- 
trated the  value  of  an  ideal.  He  was  an  educated  man  whose  sympa- 
thies were  with  the  uneducated.  He  moved  in  the  highest  circles,  yet 
snapped  the  golden  cord  unselfishly  lifting  others  up,  and  he  devoted  that 


14 

life  towards  hrinpiim  hlcssinas  to  t!ie  ])noi\  His  death  is  a  loss,  a  fearful 
loss  to  Ills  eoiuitry,  lii>  slate,  liis  eily  nf  (ircensboro.  to  the  glorious  insti- 
tntiiiii  (if  Icaininc;'  wliicli  is  lunv  his  iiioniniient.  to  his  family,  and  a  frreat 
personal   Id-s  to  me.     1  hid  yoii  a   sad  jjood-bye." 

The  TU'ws  of  ])r,  I\rclvfr"-  drath  earried  gi'ief  to  thousands  who  had 
kiei\\-n  and  lnvc(I  liini.  'I'hroiiLihoiit  the  South,  in  remote  states  of  the 
North  arid  \\"c>1 .  men  who  had  been  eneouraoed  hy  his  words  and 
inspii'ed   hy  his  spiiit  frll    a   sudden  vacancy  in  their  lives. 

In  his  own  l)clo\cd  statr  ;jiii'f  was  universal.  In  every  corner  of  North 
Carolina  iln'  ni'ws  was  heard  with  liowcd  head  and  moist  eyes.  "Men  on 
the  street  eorncis.  women  in  the  school-room,  children  in  the  remotest 
rural  district — all  felt  Ihat.  the  state  had  suffered  a  terrilde  calamity. 
A  ])artisan  pri'ss  in  Ihe  mi<l~t  of  a  ]ieat(Ml  jiolitical  compaipi  ceased  their 
warfai-e,  and  at  his  yrave  united  in  eulern,-  of  the  dead.  ^Vith  one  accord 
iliey  mou)-ned  his  di'ath  as  llie  loss  of  the  state's  most  useful  citizen. 
I!ut  no  class  of  ovir  people  f(dt  his  loss  so  deeply  as  the  teachers,  whose 
greatest  friend  he  was.  ITundi'eds  of  teachers  caufirht  from  his  presence 
a  sj)irit  tliat  sent  them  to  tlieir  dillicnlt  tasks,  from  the  collei,'-e  reeitaticn- 
I'oom  1o  the  luimhle  lon-cahin  school-hons«  in  the  hackv.oods.  with  hearts 
ajire  and  souls  inspiri'd  to  "ive  their  best  to  their  country  and  to 
luinianity,  carini;-  naui^ht  for  the  vast  personal  sacrith-cs  frequently 
in\olved. 


Note.— The  author  of  this  sketch  acknowlcdRes  with  sincere  thanks  and  appreciation 
the  kindness  of  Mr.  W.  C.  Smith,  professor  of  English  in  the  State  Normal  and  Industrial 
College,  and  of  Mr.  Charles  L.  Van  Noppen.  publisher  of  "A  Biographical  History  of 
North  Carolina,  "  for  the  use  of  the  MS.  of  Professor  Smith's  excellent  sketch  of  Dr. 
Mclver,   which  is  to  appear,    with  portrait,  in  volume  V  of  that  valuable  work. 


CORONACH. 


BY    SIR  WALTER   SCOTT. 


He  is  gone  on  the  mountain. 

He  is  lost  to  the  forest. 
Like  ;i  summer-dried   fountain, 

\Mien  our  need  was  the  sorest. 
The  font,  reappearing, 

From  the  raindrops  shall  borrow. 
But  to  us  comes  no  cheering. 

To  Duncan  no  morrow ! 

Tlie  hand  of  the  reaper 

Takes  the  ears  that  are  hoary. 
But  the  voice  of  the  weeper 

\^'ail.s  manl'.ood  in  glory. 
Tlie  autumn  winds  rushing 

Waft  the  leaves  that  are  searest. 
But  our  flower  was  in  flushing 

When  blighting  was  nearest. 

Fleet  foot  on  the  correi,* 

Sage  counsel  in  cumber,t 
Red  hand  in  the  foray — 

How  sound  is  thy  slumber ! 
Like  the  dew  on  the  mountain. 

Like  the  foam  on  the  river, 
Like  the  bubble  on  the  fountain, 

Thou  art  gone,  and  for  ever! 


*  Hollowed  hillside, 
t  Trouble. 


CHARLES  D.  MclVER  AS  I  K!^EW  HIM. 


[Address  fif  J.  Y.  Joynt-rat  the  Mclver  Memorial  Meeting'  at  the  State  Normal  and 
Industrial  ColleLve,  November  20.  1906.] 

Could  I  obey  tlie  dictates  of  my  heart,  I  should  pay  the  tribute  of  a 
sacred  silence  to  my  dead  friend  to-day  amid  these  scenes  hallowed  l)y  a 
thousand  gracious  memories  of  him.  ]\ly  love  and  admiration  are  too 
great  to  find  expression  in  "matter-moulded  forms  of  speech";  but  use 
and  wont  must  liave  their  due  and  I,  too,  must  try  to  speak. 

He  was  tlie  truest  friend,  tlie  warmest-hearted,  the  most  generous,  the 
most  actively  helpful,  the  most  self-forgetful.  He  loved  his  friends  and 
they  knew  and  the  whole  world  knew  that  he  loved  them.  He  sought 
tlieir  counsel,  loved  their  companionsliip,  and  found  their  approval 
sweet.  He  was  ever  on  the  alert  for  opportunities  to  help  them  and  to 
enable  them  to  help  themselves.  He  often  saw  such  opportunities  and 
seized  them  for  his  friends  before  they  saw  them  for  themselves.  I 
have  known  him,  unasked,  to  lay  down  his  work  and  travel  across  the 
state  at  his  own  expense,  without  reward  or  the  hope  of  reward,  to  do 
a  friend  a  kindness.  He  never  allowed  any  one  to  speak  evil  of  his 
friends  in  his  presence  or  to  misrepresent  or  misunderstand  them,  unre- 
bidced  and  uncorrected. 

And  he  was  the  friend  of  all  mankind.  All  who  knew  him  Avere  his 
friends.  He  had  the  genius  of  friendliness.  He  made  friends  witli 
strangers  more  easily  than  any  man  I  ever  knew.  There  was  in  him 
that  touch  of  nature  that  dwells  in  every  elemental  man  "that  makes 
the  whole  world  kin"  and  that  made  him  at  home  and  at  ease  with  the 
learned  and  the  unlearned:  with  the  high  and  with  the  humble.  It  was 
this  that  gave  to  his  friendliness  tluit  personal  touch  that  made  so 
many  his  personal  friends  and  filled  so  many  with  a  sense  of  personal 
loss  in  his  death. 

He  loved  his  state  and  his  people.  He  was  consecrated  to  their  inter- 
ests and  jealous  of  their  honor  and  reputation.  Love  of  North  Carolina 
and  her  people  became  a  positive  force  in  the  life  of  every  student  that 
ever  came  within  the  circle  of  his  influence. 

He  was  full  of  hope  and  good  cheer;  of  sunshine  and  of  sympathy. 
He  scattered  these  wherever  he  went.  His  presence  was  a  joy  and  a 
benediction.  In  it,  selfishness  was  shamed,  the  tongue  of  slander  was 
silenced,  littleness,  narrowness,  and  prejudice  slunk  away. 

"The  weak  and  the  gentle,  the  ribald  and  rude. 
He  took  as  he  found  them,  and  did  them  all  good." 

He  was  full  of  enthusiasm,  and  his  enthusiasm  was  contagious.  He 
was  full  of  courage,  and  his  courage,  too,  was  contagious.     He  was  full 


17 

of   streng-th,   and  the  weak  grew   strong  and  tlie   strong  grew   stronger 
under  his  influence. 

He  was  full  of  energy- — tireless,  persistent  energy.  He  was  full  of 
nonesty,  moral  and  intellectual,  private  and  public — old-fashioned,  rug- 
ged honesty.  It  beamed  from  every  feature  of  his  face;  it  shone  in  every 
act  of  his  life;  it  rang  in  every  tone  of  his  voice.  There  was  nothing 
hidden  about  him,  because  there  was  nothing  to  hide. 

He  was  full  of  faith  in  God  and  man  and  faith  in  the  final  triumph 
of  the  right.  Therefore,  he  never  gave  up  a  fight  for  right  and  was 
never  cast  downi  by  defeat.  The  blood  of  the  Scotch  Covenanter  flowed 
in  his  veins,  and  devotion  to  duty  and  consecration  to  conviction  were 
ruling  passions  with  him.  He  was  ever  impatient  with  the  lack  of  these 
in  others.  He  was  a  hard  fighter  for  what  he  believed  in,  but  he  always 
fought  a  clean  fight;  he  always  hit  above  the  belt;  he  always  respected 
a  generous  foe;  he  bore  no  malice  when  the  fight  was  over. 

He  had  "a  hand  as  open  as  day  to  melting  charity."  He  could  never 
turn  a  deaf  ear  to  any  cry  of  need  or  to  any  call  for  any  worthy  object. 
How  much  he  gave  away  will  never  be  known  until  the  record  is 
opened  at  the  great  white  throne.  Money  to  him  was  "so  much  trash  as 
may  be  grasped  thus,"  save  as  it  could  be  made  to  serve  him  and  to 
serve  others. 

He  had  large  capacity  for  enjoying  the  good  things  of  this  life  and 
believed  in  enjoying  them  in  all  proper  ways.  Often  have  I  heard  him 
quote  with  heartiest  approval  the  words  of  the  old  showman  in  Dick- 
ens: •"The  people  muth  be  amused."  In  his  philosophy  of  life,  pessi- 
mism, puritanism,  pharisaisni,  asceticism  had  no  place;  religion,  pure 
and  undefiled,  had  large  place. 

He  was  a  man  of  great  intellectual  power  and  of  rare  versatility — - 
a  masterful  man.     Power  dwelt  in  him  and  went  out  from  him. 

There  was  in  him  much  of  saving  common  sense ;  much  of  creative  and 
constructive  power;  much  of  that  gift  of  vision  vouchsafed  only  unto 
greatness.  He  was  a  fine  judge  of  men.  He  took  their  measure  with 
almost  unerring  judgment.  He  saw  their  faults,  their  weaknesses,  Avas 
patient  with  them  and  pitied  them.  He  saw  their  virtues,  their 
streng-th,  admired  them  and  used  them.  He  never  allowed  the  one  to 
blind  him  to  the  other.  He  had  the  rarest  power  that  I  have  ever  known 
of  finding  the  best  in  men  and  in  getting  the  best  out  of  men.  He  was 
a  great  leader  of  men. 

\Mthout  any  of  the  arts  of  the  orator,  he  was  the  most  convinc- 
ing, the  most  irresistible  speaker  that  I  have  ever  heard.  He  was  too 
intense,  too  earnest  to  employ  paltry  decorations  of  speech.  He  spoke 
directly  and  simply  as  one  having  authority.  He  had  a  message  and 
felt,  Woe  is  me  if  I  do  not  deliver  it.  He  forgot  himself  in  his  message. 
Men  heard  him  gladly;  thought  not  of  the  manner  of  the  man  or  of  the 
forms  of  his   speech,  but  never   forgot  the  message  that  fell  from  his 


18 

lip-:,  the  five  of  earnestne-s  and  (■lltllnsia^m  that  was  >tniek  fnuii  lii< 
.soiil  as  lie  sjKike,  and  kindleil  kiiiilre<l  fires  in  tlieirs  as  they  lislened. 

He  \\(julcl  have  hren  siieces-ful  in  almost  any  eallinjj — what  a  <;rpat 
lawyer  he  eonhl  ha\('  heen  :  what  a  sii]irrh  leader  in  politics  and  public 
life:  what  a  spli'iidiil  capta.in  of  industry  in  any  line;  what  a  prince  of 
promoters  in  any  proat  eoniniereial  enterprise!  He  conld  have  been 
almost  anything'  he  chose  to  hr. 

All  his  >plendid  ]>owers  he  jiyini^ly  laid  upon  tlie  altar  of  public 
service.  1  b(die\(>  that  God  amdnted  him  and  set  him  apart  as  a  servant 
to  his  people.  He  heard  the  call  to  service  and  followed  it  as  singly  and 
as  devotedly  as  ever  noble  knight  in  Arthurian  legend  followed  the  Holy 
Grail.  He  had  a  high  ideal  of  public  service,  and  to  it  he  subordinated 
eveiv  tempting  offer  of  private  gain  or  personal  aggrandizement.  Public 
education  was  his  chosen  field  of  service.  With  the  clear-sightedness  of 
greatness,  he  saw  that  universal  education  was  the  only  hope  of  universal 
emancipation  and  Ihe  only  safe  foundation  for  the  broadest  democracy. 
He  saw,  too,  that  the  surest,  shortest  road  to  univei'sal  education  was 
the  education  of  woman,  the  mother  and  teacher,  and,  through  her.  the 
education  of  all  the  children  of  men.  To  this  special  field,  therefore,  he 
devoted  his  chief  attention;  but  there  was  no  department  of  education 
Avliich  did  not  receive  his  helpful  touch.  His  conception  of  public 
service,  however,  was  not  narrowed  to  the  one  field  of  public  education. 
He  was  active  in  every  Held  that  otTered  opportunity  for  public  service 
in  social,  political,  commercial  circles,  in  his  town,  in  his  state,  and 
in  the  nation. 

This  was  the  man,  Charles  D.  IMclvcr,  as  I  knew  him — great  in  mind, 
great  in  heart,  great  in  service  to  his  fellowmen :  how  great,  men  did  not 
fully  understand  while  he  walked  lieside  them,  but  know  now  by  the 
lengthening  and  ever-lengthening  shadow  of  his  life  that  death  has 
thrown  across  the  state,  across  the  South,  across  the  nation.  He  is 
gone!  To  those  of  us  who  knew  him  best  and  loved  him  most,  life  can 
never  be  the  same  again- — there  can  be  no  other  friend  like  him. 

"He  is  not  dead,  he  doth  not  sleep — 
He  hath  awakened  from  the  dream  of  life," 
"  Tis  Death  is  dead,  not  he," 


'HE  DIED  POOR  THAT  HE  MIGHT  MAKE  OTHERS  RICH." 


BY    JOSEPHUS    DANIELS. 


Not  many  months  ago  there  came  to  Dr.  Mclver  a  great  temptation — ■ 
the  supreme  temptation  of  his  life.  He  had  passed  the  forty-fifth  year 
of  his  life  and  his  twonty-flfth  year  in  the  teaching  profession  and 
poured  himself  into  his  work  so  completely  that  he  had  not  thought  of 
making  money,  and  sometimes  he  was  oppressed  by  the  thought  that  if 
his  health  should  fail  he  would  have  nothing  to  take  care  of  himself  and 
his  family.  He  was  wont  to  say  to  his  friends  that  as  a  teacher  grew 
older  and  needed  larger  income,  lie  could  look  forward  to  no  increase  in 
salary,  but  to  an  old  age  of  privation.  And  that  outlook  was  one  that 
sometimes  weighed  upon  his  spirits. 

I  shall  never  foi-get  a  long  conference  in  Raleigh  between  Mclver, 
Joyner,  and  myself,  that  went  far  past  midnight  less  than  a  year  ago, 
when  Mclver  put  aside  a  temptation  to  make  money  that  he  might  con- 
tinue the  great  work  to  which  he  had  consecrated  his  life.  An  offer  had 
come  to  him,  an  inviting  offer,  from  a  commercial  enterprise  of  stand- 
ing to  accept  an  important  position  at  a  salary  of  $7,500  a  year. 
Before  that,  he  had  declined  several  flattering  offers  to  go  to  other 
states  in  the  work  of  his  profession.  But  when  an  offer  at  a  salary  of 
three  times  what  the  state  paid  him  was  urged  upon  him  by  a  broad- 
minded  business  man  who  saw  that  Mclver's  ability  and  energy  woTild  be 
a  valuable  asset,  the  duty  of  caring  for  his  family  and  providing  for  old 
age  caused  him  to  give  the  proposition  serious  consideration. 

1  knew  he  would  never  yield  to  the  temptation,  just  as  I  knew  that 
most  other  men  would  have  accepted  the  offer  without  a  moment's  hesita- 
tion; and  yet  he  was  troubled  because  he  felt  that  his  duty  to  his 
family  and  to  himself  could  not  be  easily  put  aside  to  serve  the  state, 
which  paid  him  only  enough  for  a  comfortable  living.  He  said  he 
wished  Joyner  and  myself,  whom  he  esteemed  as  brothers,  to  advise 
him  what  course  he  ought  to  pursue.  He  thought  he  Avas  holding  the 
matter  under  advisement,  but  way  down  in  his  heart  there  was  a  devo- 
tion to  the  higher  duty  that  would  have  prevented  his  acceptance  of 
the  business  proposition  if  it  had  carried  a  salary  of  twice  seventy-five 
hundred  dollars.  He  argued  that,  having  given  twenty  years  to  the 
public,  the  time  had  come  when  he  owed  something  to  his  family.  Both 
Joyner  and  myself  argued  that  he  would  be  happy  in  no  other  work, 
and  the  enlargement  and  growth  of  the  college  was  a  greater  service  to 
his  family  than  if  he  could  give  them  a  million  dollars.  I  shall  never 
forget  the  reply  he  made  to  our  argument: 


20 

"it  is  voiy  well,  boys,  for  you  both  to  tell  me  that  I  ought  to  .-tay 
and  devote  my  life  to  the  work.  You  are  serving  the  public  also,  but 
Joyner  owns  property  and  faces  no  old  age  of  poverty,  and  every  lick 
that  Daniels  strikes  he  is  adding  value  to  his  property  that  will  give 
him  an  incijuie  if  his  health  fails  and  care  for  his  wife  and  children  if 
lie  dies.  1  have  not  even  a  roof  to  my  head  that  belongs  to  me  and  not 
a  brick  of  all  that  1  have  buildi'il  is  mine  or  could  help  my  family  if  I 
.should  die." 

1  was  ashamed  then  that  I  had  dared  to  put  myself  in  the  same  class 
wit!i  liini  or  to  presume  that  my  service  to  the  public  weal  was  com- 
paiable  to  his  sacrifice.  A  silence  fell  upon  us — the  sort  of  silence  that 
only  come.-,  between  men  who  understiuid  one  another  and  iove  each 
otln'i'.  lie  broki'  the  silence.  He  had  gone  through  his  temptation  and 
his  trial.  The  advice  he  sought  really  had  little  to  do  with  his  victory, 
for  if  every  friend  had  advised  him  to  leave  the  work  to  which  he  had 
put  his  hand,  he  could  not  liave  done  it.  He  loved  it  belter  than  any- 
thing excejil  his  own  flesh  and  blood.  He  thought  he  was  considering 
the  oiler,  but  there  never  was  a  moment  when  he  could  have  accepted  it, 
though  renniiiiing  at  the  post  of  duty  seemed  to  sacrilice  his  material 
interests   and   prevented   any   provision   for   old  age. 

And  as  1  looked  Wednesday  upon  the  splendid  buildings  he  had 
erected  at  the  college,  his  words  came  back  to  me,  that  not  one  brick 
he  had  placed  upon  another  belonged  to  him  or  would  lielp  to  support 
his  family  or  care  for  him  in  his  old  age.  And  yet,  with  that  knowledge, 
he  put  aside  the  natural  de>ire  of  the  htisband  and  father  and  tlirew 
liimself  into  the  woik  for  humanity  -with  fresh  zeal.  The  incident  was 
closed.  His  conseciation.  new  and  complete,  to  his  work  gave  him  joy 
and  happiness.  \Vhen  he  hau  met  and  conquered  the  temptation  to  put 
making  money,  in  an  honorable  way  and  fnr  the  highest  purpose,  above 
the  \ision  he  had  seen  and  the  duty  In-  had  accepted,  there  came  to  him 
a  |)eace  and  a  purpose  that  gave  him  larger  vision  and  a  higher 
and)ition  than  he  had  liitherto  known,  and  when  he  died  he  was  planning 
greater  things  than  iiis  associates  had  dreamed  he  entertained.  There 
never  was  a  time  when  the  temptation  to  leave  his  life-work  could  have 
moved  him;  btit  I  have  thought  how  much  richer  his  good  wife  and 
children  are  because  of  his  noble  public  service  than  if  he  had  turned 
aside  to  make  money  for  them.  They  have  in  the  high  purpose  of  his 
life  the  heritage  of  a  love  so  great  as  to  find  alone  in  perfect  sacrifice  to 
a  great  and  humane  idea  its  liest  and  final  expression. 

Said  Mr.  Bryan  in  his  Greensboro  eulogy:  "We  have  a  great  man — - 
Rockefeller,  the  richest  man  in  the  world;  and  if  I  had  to  choose 
between  leaving  the  record  of  Dr.  Mclver  and  leaving  tiie  record  of 
Rockefeller,  1  would  a  thousand  times  rather  leave  Melver's  record  to 
posterity." 

There  is  something,  after  all,  higher  and  better  than  the  inheritance 
of  vellow  gold! 


AMERICA. 


BY  S.  F.  SMITH. 


My  country,  'tis  of  thee, 
Sweet  land  of  liberty, 

Of  thee  I  sing; 
Land  where  my  fathers  died, 
Land  of  the  pilgrim's  pride, 
From  every  mountainside 

Let  freedom  ring! 

My  native  country,  thee, 
Land  of  the  noble  free, 

Thy  name  I  love! 
I  love  thy  rocks  and  rills, 
Thy  woods  and  templed  hills, 
My  heart  with  rapture  thrills 

Like  that  above! 

Let  music  swell  the  breeze 
And  ring  from  all  the  trees 

Sweet  freedom's  song; 
Lot  mortal  tongues  awake, 
Let  all  that  breathe  partake, 
Let  rocks  their  silence  break, 

The  sound  prolong! 

Our  fathers'  God,  to  Thee, 
Author  of  liberty. 

To  Thee  we  sing; 
Long  may  our  land  be  bright 
With  freedom's  holy  light; 
Protect  us  by  Thy  might, 

Great  God,  our  King! 


STORIES  OF  CHARLES  D.  MclVER. 


DY    SUPEKIXTEXDEXT    J.    Y.    JOYXKR. 


MclVER'S    STRUGGLE    FOR    AN     EDUCATION. 

AT    THE    PREPARATORY    SCHOOL. 

McImt  was  ri'arotl  on  a  farm  in  Chatliam  county.  Before  the  war 
lii>  fatlicr  was  in  comfortable  circumstances,  owning  a  good  farm  and 
a  number  of  slaves.  He  had  sometliing  of  the  Scotch  economy  and  thrift 
and  made  a  comfortable  and  easy  living.  He  was  a  man  of  inlluenco  in 
his  community.  He  was  a  man,  also,  of  large  sympathies  and  was 
known  throughout  the  c<jmmunity  for  his  charity,  as  a  great  friend  of 
all  tiie  poor  people  in  the  surrounding  country.  Like  .so  many  other 
Southern  planters,  upon  his  return  home  after  four  years"  service  in  the 
L'i>nfederate  army,  he  found  liis  property  swept  away.  Avith  nothing  left 
but  land  and  debt.  The  boys  went  to  work  on  the  farm.  There  was  no 
sort  of  farm  -work  that  Charles  U.  ]\lclver  was  not  familiar  \\ith  and 
that  he  had  not  done  on  his  father's  farm.  Throughout  his  life  he 
loved  the  farm  and  the  farmer.  He  believed  that  every  boy  ought  to  be 
taught  to  dig  and  delve  in  the  soil  with  his  own  hands  and  be  brought 
into  this  sort  of  close  contact  with  Mother  Xatiire  and  Mother  Earth. 
The  community  in  -which  he  lived  was  a  Scotch  community.  The  Scotch 
of  this  state  have  always  been  great  believers  in  education.  His  father 
and  his  Sccitch  neighbors,  therefore,  even  in  their  jioverty,  managed 
to  keep  in  the  neighborhood  a  good  private  school.  Mclver  received  his 
preparation  for  college  in  this  neighborhood  school.  The  school  was 
taught  by  an  old-fashioned  schoolmaster  who  believed  in  the  power  of 
drill  and  drudgery.  Mclver  always  held  this  teacher  in  the  highest 
esteem. 

AT    THE   TXIVERSITY. 

\\'hen  the  time  came  for  him  to  go  to  college,  his  father  was  unable 
to  provide  the  necessary  funds.  His  Ijoy  was  anxious  to  go  to  college 
anil  the  father  was  anxious  for  him  to  go,  so  the  money  was  borrowed. 
Mclver  went  to  college  and  completed  his  college  course  on  borrowed 
money.  Out  of  his  meager  salary  he  paid  every  cent  of  it  back  in  a 
few  years  after  leaving  college.  He  entered  college  in  1877.  His  home 
was  about  thirty  miles  from  the  University  of  Xorth  Carolina  at  Chapel 
Hill.  His  father  took  him  and  two  of  his  cousins,  who  entered  college 
Avith  him,  across  the  country  by  private  conveyance  to  the  university 
commencement  in  June.  1877,  to  make  arrangements  for  entering.  It 
was  the  country  boy's  first  long  trip  from  home.     It  was  the  first  large 


ropiesoiilativc  North  Carolina  crowd  that  he  had  ever  seen.  Our 
greatest  statesman  and  leader  and  lover  of  the  common  people,  Zebnlon 
B.  V^rnce,  at  that  time  governor  of  the  stal^,  delivered  the  commence- 
ment address.  The  occasion,  the  speech,  and  the  groat  man  who  deliv- 
ered it,  produced  a  profound  impression  upon  the  young  boy  that 
became  a  distinct  and  shaping  influence  in  his  life.  He  has  often 
described  the  occasion  to  me  and  told  me  that  it  was  the  beginning  of 
a  new  era  in  his  life.  From  that  day  he  was  an  ardent  admirer  of 
Governor  Vance.  Because  of  this  experience  and  his  recollection  of  the 
inspiration  of  it  to  him,  he  was  ever  afterwards  a  firm  believer  in 
requiring  students  to  remain  to  commencement  exercises  and  in  the 
value  of  bringing  masterful  men  to  speak  to  students. 

He  made  a  fine  record  as  a  student  at  the  university.  He  was  well 
prepared,  especially  in  the  classics.  He  was  an  unusually  fine  Greek 
scholar,  winning  the  medal  for  the  best  scholarship  in  his  Greek  class  at 
the  university.  He  soon  became  a  leader  among  the  college  students. 
In  the  universit,y,  as  afterwards  in  life,  however,  he  used  his  leadership 
largely  for  the  promotion  of  the  interests  of  others,  never  seeking  college 
honors  for  himself,  but  rarely  failing  to  secure  them  for  the  friend.s 
whose  cause  he  championed. 

I  recall  an  amusing  incident  illustrating  his  power  to  fight  a  fight 
to  the  finish  and  win  without  leaving  any  burnings  in  the  hearts  even  of 
his  opponents.  There  were  two  parties  in  the  Dialectic  Literary  Society, 
of  which  he  was  a  member,  known  as  the  South  Building  and  the  West 
Building  parties.  Mclver  was  the  leader  of  the  West  Building  party. 
The  elections  for  college  honors  had  just  been  held  and  the  West  Build- 
ing party  had  won.  On  the  night  after  the  election,  one  of  the  leaders 
of  the  South  Building  party,  a  classmate  of  ^Nlclver's,  walked  into 
Mclver"s  room  and  said  to  him:  '']Mac,  you  fellows  have  beaten  us 
shamefully  and  I  have  been  sent  by  the  South  Building  party  to  give 
you  a  beating."  Then  tapping  him  lightly  on  the  shoulder,  he  said: 
"I  guess  this  will  do."  The  truth  is,  nobody  coiTld  bear  any  malice 
against  Charles  D.  Mclver.  lie  always  fought  a  clean  fight,  and  even 
his  opponents  could  hardly  help  loving  him  when  the  fight  was  o^'er. 

I  have  no  doubt  that  Melver's  struggle  and  sacrifice  in  getting  his 
college  education  helped  to  explain  his  sympathy  for  struggling  boys 
and  girls  of  limited  means,  his  eloquent  speeches  in  their  cause,  his 
lifelong  devotion  to  the  university,  and  his  love  and  gratitude  to  his 
state.  The  university  never  had  a  more  loyal  son  than  Charles  D. 
Mclver.  He  stood  up  for  its  interests  everywhere  and  at  all  times.  He 
never  failed  to  respond  to  its  call  for  anything.  It  was  always  his 
custom  to  attend  the  commencement.  He  missed  only  one  commence- 
ment of  his  Alma  Mater  after  his  graduation  in  1881.  He  was  provi- 
dentially detained  from  that.  Great  souls  like  his  are  always  grateful. 
Through  all  his  life  he  felt  that  he  owed  to  the  university  and  to  the 


24 

stale  a  debt  of  gratitude  that  he  could  never  repay  for  inakinnf  it  jiossi- 
ble  for  liim  to  2fet  an  education.  He  determined  to  devote  his  life  to 
helpinr;-  every  lioy  ;uid  girl  in  North  Carolina  get  an  education.  He 
aided  in  every  jiossilde  way  every  movement  set  on  foot  for  the  advance- 
ment of  the  inti'resls.  the  progress,  and  the  prosperity  of  the  state  that 
he  loved  with  the  tender  love  of  a  son  for  his  mother. 

MclVER'S    FIRST    ATTEMPT    AT    PUBLIC    SPEAKING. 

As  a  college  student,  ]\lclver  could  not  be  induced  to  speak  in  public. 
He  wrote  a  graduating  essay,  but  begged  to  be  excused  a!id  was  excused 
from  delivering  a  graduating  address.  He  was  always  a  fine  talker  and 
on  the  campus  was  usually  the  center  of  an  interested  group  of  his  fellow- 
students  when  he  began  to  talk:  but  he  did  not  believe  that  he  could 
make  a  public  speech. 

Immediately  after  his  graduation  he  was  employed  to  teach  in  a 
private  school  at  Durham.  During  the  session  the  principal  of  the 
school,  on  account  of  the  death  of  his  father,  resigned  and  left  the 
school  in  charge  of  ]McIver.  There  was  a  rival  private  school  in  the 
town  taugiit  by  a  clergyman,  Dr.  Deans.  ]\lclver"s  school  had  closed 
and  he  remained  a  few  daj's  afterwards  to  attend  the  commencement 
exercises  of  Dr.  Deans'  school.  On  the  closing  niglit  of  these  exercises, 
after  the  regular  exercises  were  o\'er,  as  is  frequently  the  custom,  the 
audience  called  for  short  ><jjeeehes  from  a  number  of  prominent  citizens. 
Much  to  his  surprise  and  confusion,  somebody  started  a  cry  for  Mclver. 
The  cry  was  so  persistent  and  prolonged  that  ^^Iclver  finally  rose  from 
his  seat  in  the  audier.ce,  covered  with  confusion,  his  face  as  red  as  a 
peony,  and  began  stammeiingly  thus:  "I  sympathize  with  Dr.  Deans — 
1  sympathize  witli  Dr.  Deans — I  sympathize  with  Dr.  Deans."  Unable 
to  give  utterance  to  anothei'  thought,  he  sat  down  amidst  laughter  and 
applause.  It  was  some  years  afterwards  before  he  ever  attempted  to 
make  another  speech  in  public.  He  became  one  of  the  strongest  and 
most  irresistible  speakers  that  I  have  ever  heard.  He  became,  in  spite 
of  his  natural  timidity,  a  great  speaker,  because  he  liad  a  message  and 
was  controlled  by  a  profound  conviction  that  it  was  his  mission  to 
deliver  that  message.  He  could  never  speak  with  any  power  or  effective- 
ness when  he  did  not  have  some  definite  message  to  deliver  and  some 
specific  end  in  view. 

HOW    MclVER     FOUND    HIS    MISSION. 

After  the  death  of  his  father,  ]\lclver  being  the  oldest  child,  became 
the  real  head  of  the  familj'.  When  his  only  sister  was  prepared  for 
college,  he  looked  about  him  for  a  place  to  send  her.  He  was  determined 
that  she  should  have  a  college  education  and  it  was  necessary  for  him 
to  help  provide  the  fumls  to  enable  her  to  secure  it.  He  examined  the 
courses  of  study  and  the  charges  of  the  various  colleges  for  women  in 


25 

the  state.  He  found,  as  he  expressed  it,  that,  at  any  of  the  reputable 
colleges  for  women  in  the  state,  his  sister's  annual  expenses  would  be 
aiiout  twice  his  annual  expenses  at  the  State  University.  He  found  that 
the  courses  of  study  were  nothing  like  so  extensive  or  thorough.  Too 
much  attention  was  given  to  the  ornamental  branches,  such  as  music  and 
art,  and  too  little  attention  to  the  classics,  English,  mathematics,  and 
other  branches  of  study  that  tended  to  develop  real  mental  muscle  and 
give  broad  mental  culture.  No  attention  was  given  to  domestic  science 
and  those  subjects  that  prepare  women  for  housekeeping  and  home- 
making  or  for  fitting  them  to  become  independent  and  self-supporting. 
He  found,  also,  that  he  was  taught  at  the  university  by  a  faculty  cost- 
ing four  or  five  times  as  much  as  the  faculty  that  would  teach  his  sister 
at  any  of  these  colleges,  though  she  would  have  to  pay  twice  as  much 
for  instruction  by  this  inferior  faculty  giving  this  inferior  course  of 
study.  He  was  not  long  in  arriving  at  the  causes  of  this  difference.  He 
saw  that  the  state  for  a  hundred  years,  as  he  expressed  it,  had  been 
going  into  partnership  with  the  men  at  the  university  and  paying  part 
of  the  expense  of  higher  education  for  them  through  state  appropriations 
and  endowments.  The  churches,  through  the  endowments  of  their  col- 
leges, had  been  doing  the  same  thing  for  men.  Philanthropists  had  been 
doing  the  same  thing  for  negro  men  and  women  in  North  Carolina.  But 
not  one  cent  had  ever  been  invested  by  state,  church,  or  philanthropist  to 
decrease  the  cost  of  higher  education  for  the  white  women  of  North 
Carolina  and  to  provide  for  them  anything  like  equal  educational  oppor- 
tunities. His  chivalrous  nature  and  his  great  soul  rebelled  against  this 
injustice  to  woman  and  this,  perhaps  unintentional,  but  none  the  less 
inexcusable  discrimination  against  her  by  church  and  state.  He  saw, 
also,  with  the  clear  vision  of  a  great  mind  that  the  educated  woman 
in  home  and  school  and  social  and  civic  life  was  the  strategic  point  in 
education  and  civilization.  He  tersely  and  forcefully  expressed  this 
truth  as  follows : 

"When  a  man  is  educated  it  is  simply  one  more  taken  from  the  lists 
of  ignorance;  but  in  the  education  of  a  woman  the  whole  family  is 
taught,  for  she  will  pass  on  what  she  has  learned  to  her  children. 
The  education  of  one  woman  is  far  more  important  for  the  world's 
advancement  than  that  of  one  man." 

From  that  moment  his  mission  and  his  message  were  clear  to  him. 
From  that  moment  he  became  the  ablest  and  most  eloquent  champion  of 
better  educational  opportunities  for  the  women  of  North  Carolina.  He 
believed  in  the  people.  There  was  nobody  else  to  carry  his  message  to 
the  people.  He  overcame  his  dislike  to  public  speaking.  He  went  to  the 
people.  He  never  lost  an  opportunity  to  present  to  them  with  pen  and 
tongue  this  truth  that  he  so  clearly  saw  and  with  which  his  soul  was 
all  on  fire.  Tlie  people  heard  his  message  and  believed  in  him.  He  won 
his  fight.  To-day  in  North  Carolina  church  and  state  are  seeking  to 
give  through   endowments  and  appropriations   to   all   women,   rich    and 


26 

poor,  opportunities  for  hi.ufher  education  equal  to  tliose  provided  for  men 
and  better  adapted  to  tlie  needs  of  women  than  licretofore. 

Tlu-  State  Xormal  and  Industrial  College  is  the  enduring  monument 
of  liis  vietoi-y. 

HIS   KINDLINESS   OF   HEART. 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  traits  of  Dr.  ]\IcIvor"s  character  was  his 
l)road  democracy  and  his  sympathy  with  the  weak.  A  man  as  strong  as 
lie  is  often  unsympathetic  with  weakness  in  others.  It  was  this  sym- 
pathy and  patit'nce  with  weakness  that  helped  to  make  him  a  great 
teacher  and  to  win  for  him  the  admiration  and  the  afi'ection  of  the  weak 
as  wtdl  as  the  strong. 

The  devotion  of  his  servants  to  him  was  beautiful,  but  not  more  beau- 
tiful than  liis  kindness  to  them.  I  remember  when  \^•e  were  abroad  last 
fall.  1  went  with  him  one  day  into  a  clothing  st(U'e  in  London.  It  was  on 
the  eve  of  our  departure  for  home.  He  had  already  bought  a  number  of 
presents  for  friends  at  home.  In  the  clothing  store  I  found  him  select- 
ing a  somewhat  handsome  checked  English  waistcoat.  I  said:  "Mclver, 
what  in  the  world  are  you  going  to  do  with  that?"  Ho  replied:  "I 
could  not  think  of  anything  that  would  please  Zeke  more.  I  am  going 
to  take  it  to  him."  Zeke  is  the  negro  janitor  at  the  college.  He  has  been 
in  Dr.  Mclver's  service  for  about  twenty  years.  His  devotion  to  him 
and  to  his  entire  family  is  toucliing.  I  doulit  if  the  heart  of  any  friend 
of  Dr.  Mclver  was  more  rent  with  grief  at  his  death  than  the  heart  that 
beat  in  the  bosom  of  Zeke,  his  faithful  servant.  When  Dr.  ]\TcIver  died, 
Zeke  watched  by  his  remains  all  night  and  could  not  be  induced  to  leave 
them  for  a  moment.  Next  day  he  a-sked  the  privilege  of  driving  the 
carriage  that  carried  the  family  in  the  funeral  procession.  No  friend 
has  been  truer  or  more  thoughtful  since  his  death  to  the  widow  and 
children. 

One  of  the  old  family  negroes,  whose  father  had  belonged  to  Dr. 
Mclver's  father,  was  employed  on  the  college  farm.  He  had  been 
Mclver's  boyhood  playmate  on  the  farm.  Giles  was  his  name.  He  was 
devoted  to  Dr.  Mclver  and  had  been  at  work  on  the  college  farm  for 
years.  Giles  would  get  drunk  occasionally,  however,  and  when  on  a 
spree  would  sometimes  go  to  a  festival  and  was  liable  to  use  a  razor. 
Giles  got  into  trouble  one  night,  and  next  morning  he  was  missing  from 
his  accustomed  place  on  the  farm.  Nothing  was  heard  of  him  for 
several  months.  One  day  as  Mclver  sat  in  his  office,  a  letter  was 
brought  from  Giles,  in  Philadelphia,  stating  that  he  was  ill  and  out  of 
money  and  asking  for  a  loan  of  .$30.  Mclver  did  not  wait  to  write,  but 
telegraplied  him  the  money.  As  soon  as  Giles  recovered,  he  returned, 
homesick  and  penitent.  Nobody  knew  of  his  coming  or  of  his  intention 
to  return.  One  morning  Giles  was  found  at  his  usual  work  on  the  farm. 
This  was  all  that  was  known  or  said  about  his  escapade.  He  returned, 
of  course,  every  cent  of  the  money  borrowed. 


SOUTHERN  EDUCATIONAL  POLICIES. 

[Extracts  fkom  Addresses  of  Charles  D.  ^NIcIveu.] 

THE   MEANING  OF   EDUCATION. 

"The  supreme  question  in  civilization  is  education.  From  the  stand- 
point of  communities,  states,  and  nations,  education  is  an  elTort  to  pre- 
serve and  transmit  to  posterity  the  best  that  we  can  see.  and  know,  and 
be,  and  do.  Sometimes  we  think  it  is  a  pity  that  a  good  man  who  has 
learned  to  be  of  service  to  his  fellows  sliould  be  called  out  of  the  world. 
So  sometimes  ^^■e  may  think  about  an  enterprising  and  useful  generation; 
but  after  all,  the  generations  of  men  are  but  relays  in  civilization's 
march  on  its  journey  from  savagery  to  the  millennium.  Each  genera- 
tion owes  it  to  the  past  and  to  the  future  that  no  previous  worthy 
attainment  or  achievement  whether  of  thought  or  deed  or  vision,  shall 
be  lost.  It  is  also  under  the  highest  obligation  to  make  at  least  as 
much  progress  on  the  march  as  has  been  made  by  any  generation  that 
has  gone  before.  Education  is  simply  civilization's  etl'ort  to  propagate 
and  perpetuate  its  life  and  progress." 

THE  DEMOCRACY  OF  EDUCATION. 

"It  is  the  salvation  of  democracy  that  education  cannot  be  bought 
or  given  or  inherited  or  sold,  like  clothes  and  what  we  choose  to  call 
real  estate.  The  person  educated  must  contribute  more  to  his  education 
than  all  others  combined,  though  he  cannot  do  the  task  alone.  Parents, 
teachers,  tax-payers,  and  philanthropists  can  aid  him:  but  all  of  them 
combined  cannot  educate  a  man  without  his  consent  or  Avithout  his 
systematic,  patient  toil.  It  is  in  this  sense  that  every  man  is  the 
architect  of  his  own  fortime." 

FOUR   EDUCATIONAL  NEEDS. 

In  my  opinion,  the  majority  of  the  schools  of  the  South  need  and 
need  badly: 

1.  Better  houses  and  equipment. 

2.  Longer  terms. 

3.  Stronger  teachers. 

4.  More  effective  supervision. 

Reducing  these  needs  to  a  common  denominator,  we  have  four  distinct 
calls  for  more  money. 


28 

AN  EDUCATIONAL  INVESTMENT. 

"There  is  a  Inrge  minilicr  of  people  in  North  Carolina  who  believe 
Unit  tlie  state  on.sht  to  issue  bonds  for  the  proper  physical  equipment 
of  the  state's  educational  institutions.  All  the  money  appropriated  by 
the  peojile  for  educational  purposes,  whctlier  in  the  district  schools,  in 
the  benevolent  schools  for  the  deaf  and  lilind  and  orplian  asyhuns,  or 
in  its  coUe'ies  and  universities,  is  an  inve>tnient,  and  while  no  individual 
or  eoriKjration  can  go  into  the  biisincss  of  borrowing  for  current  expenses, 
it  is  a  fai-t  recognized  by  all  corporations  and  by  most  individuals  in 
business  that  borrowing  for  investment  in  a  plant  or  for  permanent 
imjirovement  is  not  only  wise,  but  it  is  generally  necessary  for  any 
great  work.  Unquestionably,  it  would  be  easy  to  find  in  any  community 
in  Xorth  Carolina  strong,  intelligent  debaters  on  either  side  of  the 
question.  There  would  be  those  who  would  insist  upon  the  motto:  'Pay 
as  you  go;  if  you  can't  ]i<iy,  don't  go.'  There  would  be  others  equally 
honest  who  w(nild  say:  "We  must  go,  and,  as  the  only  way  to  go  forward 
as  we  ought  to  go  is  to  Ixirrow  from  our  richer  selves  in  the  future,  let 
us  issue  enough  Ijonils  to  make  the  necessary  permanent  improvements 
in  the  state's  jdant  in  every  department  and  show  the  same  kind  of 
faith  in  ourselves  that  every  important  city  in  the  state  has  shown  in 
itself  by  issuing  bonds  for  public  elementary  and  high  school  buildings.'  " 

STRONGER  TEACHERS  NEEDED. 

"The  school-teacher,  if  properly  qualified,  is  our  most  important  public 
official.  Those  who  teach  the  young  are  civilization's  most  powerful 
agents,  and  society  everywhere  ought  to  set  apart  and  consecrate  to  its 
greatest  work  its  bravest,  its  best,  its  strongest  men  and  women.  The 
teacher  is  the  seed-corn  of  civilization,  and  none  but  tlie  best  is  good 
enough  to  use. 

"A  higher  standard  of  teaching,  of  course,  calls  for  a  higher  standard 
of  compensation.  Teachers  are  no  better  because  the  people  do  not 
desire  better  teachers.  On  the  streets  of  the  cities  of  some  of  the 
Southern  states  untrained  and  unskilled  laborers,  some  of  them  illit- 
erate, are  paid  $1.25  a  day  and  jierhaps  more.  This  is  more  than  the 
average  public  school  teacher  in  the  South  is  paid.  I  do  not  say  it  is 
too  much.  I  use  it  merely  for  the  sake  of  comparison.  *  *  *  i  repeat, 
I  do  not  think  the  compensation  of  the  former  class  is  too  great,  but  the 
person  who  builds  citizens  and  shapes  the  character  and  thought  of  the 
young  is  worth  more  to  society  than  the  man  who  builds  houses  and 
molds  iron." 

THE  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  TEACHER. 

"We  frequently  hear  comments  on  tlie  inferiority  of  teachers.  Can 
we  expect  to  secure  the  most  capable  men  and  w'omen  to  train  children 
at  a  smaller  wage  than  we  pay  convicts  from  the  penitentiary  when  we 


29 

employ  them  to  work  on  our  public  roads?  *  *  "  There  is  nothing  in 
this  house  that  we  would  let  a  $40  a  month  laborer  work  upon,  except 
the  brains  of  our  children.  You  listened  to  a  magnificent  address  here 
last  night  on  the  economic  value  of  an  education:  but  a  weakling 
cannot  train  boys  and  girls  into  great  men  and  women  whose  education 
has  economic  value.  We  must  have  masters  as  teachers.  I  would  prefer 
tliat  my  boy  and  girl  should  come  into  occasional  contact  with  a  master 
spirit,  even  if  they  did  not  gain  so  much  literary  training,  than  to  come 
into  contact  with  a  teacher  with  all  the  degrees  that  the  colleges  can 
confer,  but  who  is  a  wooden  sort  of  a  person  without  generous  ambition 
and  without  the  power  to  inspire  generous  ambition  in  others.  Let  us 
keep  impressing  upon  the  public  that  in  order  to  secure  masterful 
teachers,  who  are  the  seed-corn  of  civilization,  whose  business  it  is  to 
hand  down  from  this  generation  to  the  next  the  best  that  we  have  been 
able  to  see  and  know  and  do  and  dream,  we  must  be  willing  to  invest  in 
the  trainers  of  our  children  more  money  and  time  and  thought  than  we 
have  ever  yet  invested  in  them.  I  do  not  want  my  children  taught 
geography  by  a  person  who  has  never  been  outside  of  the  congressional 
district  in  which  she  is  teaching.  I  do  not  want  my  children  to  be 
taught  the  relation  between  capital  and  labor  by  a  man  or  woman  who 
never  expects  to  see  more  than  $150  or  $200  capital  for  a  year  s  salary. 
"It  is  not  a  question  of  wasting  the  time  of  a  child  for  six  or  seven 
years,  but  it  is  the  waste  of  the  time  of  an  active  worker  in  after-life — 
man  or  woman.  Too  many  people  underrate  the  value  cf  a  child's  time. 
*  *  *  There  are  people  who  seem  to  think  that  a  little  child's  time 
is  worth  nothing,  and  waste  it  by  putting  it  in  charge  of  a  teacher  with- 
out skill  and  inspiration.  We  forget  that  it  is  the  man  or  the  woman's 
time  we  are  wasting.  Six  or  seven  years  of  a  child's  life  wasted  means 
sixty  or  seventy  years  of  effective  manhood  or  womanliood   wasted." 

THE    EDUCATION   OF  WOMEN. 

"The  chief  factors  of  any  civilization  are  its  homes  and  its  primary 
schools.  Homes  and  primary  schools  are  made  by  women  rather  than 
by  men.  No  state  which  will  once  educate  its  mothers  need  have  any 
fear  about  future  illiteracy.  An  educated  man  may  be  the  father  of 
illiterate  children,  but  the  children  of  educated  women  are  never  illit- 
erate. *  *  *  Money  invested  in  the  education  of  a  man  is  a  good 
investment,  but  the  dividend  which  it  yields  is  frequently  confined  to  one 
generation  and  is  of  the  material  kind.  It  strengthens  his  judgment, 
gives  him  foresight,  and  makes  him  a  more  productive  laborer  in  any 
field  of  activity.  It  does  the  same  thing  for  a  woman ;  but  her  field  of 
activity  is  usually  with  children,  and  therefore  the  money  invested  in 
the  education  of  a  woman  yields  a  better  educational  dividend  than  that 
invested  in  the  education  of  a  man." 


30 

THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  SUPERVISION. 

Till-:    STATi:    SrfF.niXTKXDEXT. 

"Tlie  most  important  oniccrs  in  the  South  to-day  are  the  state  superin- 
tendents of  puldie  inslrnction  and  the  county  superintendents.  Unfortu- 
nalely,  the  salaries  of  our  state  superintendents  and  their  allowances  for 
traveling;  expenses  are  not  suflicient  to  secure  the  most  effective  service. 
It  is  more  imjKjrtant  to  any  state  in  the  South  to  liave  a  state  superin- 
tendent of  towering  ability  than  to  have  a  governor  or  a  congressman  of 
towering  ability.  In  most  of  the  Soutliern  states  we  pay  our  state 
superintendent  of  public  instruction  a  salary  of  from  $1,.500  to  $2,000. 
We  pay  our  governors  from  $-'{.000  to  ■'?5.000.  Congressmen  are  paid 
.'p.'), 000.  In  spite  of  this,  some  state  superintendents  are  superior  in  point 
of  ability  and  elllcieuey  to  some  governors.     "     *     * 

■'Every  efficient  state  superintendent  in  the  South  knows  that,  under 
the  present  conditions,  his  ]iarticu]ar  -work  is  in  tlie  field  and  not  in 
the  oflice;  yet  many  of  tlie  l)(^>t  su]ierintend(-nts  are  handicapped  because 
they  cannot  remain  in  the  field  and  lalior  where  lal)or  is  most  needed, 
unless  they  are  \\illing  to  do  so  at  their  own  expense  out  of  their  meager 
salaries.  It  is  exceedingly  poor  economy  on  tlie  part  of  the  state  to 
limit,  by  inadequate  provision  for  necessary  traveling  expenses,  the 
state  superintendent's  work. 

THE    COXXTY   SX'PERIXTEXIDEXT. 

"But  let  us  now  direct  our  attention  to  the  county  superintendent.  He 
ought  to  be  the  livest  man  and  most  inlluential  leader  among  his  people. 
This  is  exactly  what  a  few  county  superintendents  are;  but  such  men 
are  very  rare,  and  it  is  no  wonder  they  are  rare.  Nothing  is  so  indica- 
tive of  the  low  ebb  of  public  education  as  the  pitiable  price  we  are 
willing  to  pay  for  the  services  of  the  coiinty  superintendent.  The  secur- 
ing of  a  competent  and  capable  man  for  this  great  work  is  almost  an 
accident  and  is  of  rare  occurrence. 

"As  a  rule,  an  ambitious  county  superintendent  with  a  family  cannot 
live  on  the  salary  of  his  position.  And  yet  public  thought  needs  to  lie 
stimulated  most  just  where  this  man  touches  the  life  of  the  people.  His 
work,  more  than  any  other  public  ^^•ork  in  his  community,  needs  a  man  of 
great  power,  tact,  and  energy.  He  should  be  a  man  who  can  win  the 
confidence  of  the  intelligent,  lead  the  ignoran.t  and  illiterate,  and  give 
hope  and  inspiration  to  plodding  men  of  mediocre  ability  and  position. 
In  an  argument  on  general  questions,  he  should  be  able  to  hold  his  own 
with  the  strongest  professional  or  commercial  men  he  may  chance  to 
meet;  and  in  the  discussion  of  educational  questions  he  ought  to  be 
more  than  a  match  for  them.  He  ought  not  to  be  a  mere  examiner  of 
teachers  or  a  gatherer  of  statistics.  *  *  *  The  chief  work  of  the 
local  superintendents  now  should  be  to  show  the  county  commissioners 


31 

and  'the  powers  that  be'  in  politics  and  business  what  the  educational 
necessities  of  his  county  are,  and  how  these  necessities  can  be  supplied, 
and  he  ought  to  be  able  to  lielp  secure  proper  support  from  the  people." 

FUTURE  LESSONS  IN  TAXATION. 

"We  have  heard  in  ancient  days  that  it  is  robbery  to  tax  Brown's 
property  to  educate  Jones'  children.  In  the  future  no  one  will  question 
the  right  of  tlie  state  to  tax  the  propertj'  of  Brown  and  Jones  to  develop 
the  state  through  its  children.  We  and  our  fathers  have  too  often 
thought  of  a  state  as  a  piece  of  land  with  mineral  resources,  forests, 
water-courses,  and  certain  climatic  conditions.  The  future  will  recog- 
nize that  people — not  trees  and  rocks  and  rivers  and  imaginary  boundary 
lines — make  a  state,  and  that  the  state  is  great,  intelligent,  wealthy, 
and  powerful,  or  is  small,  ignorant,  poverty-stricken,  and  weak,  just  in 
proportion  as  its  people  are  educated,  or  a^  they  are  untrained  and  raw, 
like  the  natural  material  about  them.  It  has  been  too  common  a  polit- 
ical teaching  that  the  best  government  is  that  which  levies  the  smallest 
taxes.  The  future  will  modify  that  doctrine  and  teach  that  liberal  taxa- 
tion, fairly  levied  and  properly  applied,  is  the  chief  mark  of  a  civilized 
people.     The  savage  paj^s  no  tax." 

THE  TEACHER  MUST  BE  A  LEADER. 

"The  inauguration  of  a  movement  for  the  betterment  of  conditions  in 
any  field  of  human  activity  must  be  made  primarily  by  the  laborers  in 
that  field.  Physicians  have  not  expected  lawyers  to  lead  in  matters  of 
sanitation;  lawyers  have  not  depended  upon  farmers  for  judicial  legisla- 
tion; farmers  have  not  bettered  their  conditions  except  when  the  repre- 
sentatives of  their  calling  are  able  to  lead  or  to  teach  others  to  lead. 
No  more  can  we  expect  great  educational  advance  movements  except 
under  the  leadership  of  teachers  or  leaders  who  have  been  instructed  or 
inspired  by  teachers.  W^e  must  lead  our  own  movements  so  far  as  we 
can,  and,  in  addition,  we  must  often  furnish  a  brief  of  fact  and  argument 
to  those  in  high  political  place  for  a  quicker  and  more  influential  leader- 
ship. The  school-teacher  can  educate  public  sentiment  to  see  the  truth 
in  regard  to  public  education,  so  that  it  will  be  impossible  for  those  who 
are  indiff"erent  or  hostile  to  the  cause  to  be  elected  to  positions  of  honor 
or  power.  It  is  worth  a  great  deal  to  a  county  to  have  a  sheriff', 
or  a  judge,  or  a  county  commissioner  who  is,  ni  time  of  need,  a  fighting 
friend  for  the  cause  of  public  education.  When  the  masses  of  the 
people,  educated  and  uneducated,  are  brought  to  the  realization  of  the 
highest  interests  of  themselves  and  their  children,  they  will  not  be  slow 
to  develop  political  educational  leaders  from  their  own  ranks." 


HO!   FOR  CAROLINA! 


BY    WILLIAM    B.    IIARRELL. 


Let   no  lu'art   in  sorrow  weep  for  otlier  clays; 

Let  no  idle  dreamer  tell  in  melting  lays 

Of  the  merry  meetings  in  the  rosy  bowers; 

For  there  is  no  land  on  earth  like  this  fair  land  of  ours! 


Ho!   for  Carolina!  that's  the  land  for  me; 
In  her  happy  borders  roam  the  brave  and  free: 
And  her  bright-eyed  daughters  none  can  fairer  be; 
Oh !  it  is  a  land  of  love  and  sweet  liberty ! 

Down  in  Carolina  grows  the  lofty  pine, 
And  her  groves  and  forests  bear  the  scented  vine; 
Here  are  peaceful  homes,  too,  nestling  'mid  the  flowers. 
Oh!  there  is  no  land  on  earth  like  this  fair  land  of  ourst 

Ho !  for  Carolina  I  etc. 

Come  to  Carolina  in  the  summer-time, 

When  the  luscious  fruits  are  hanging  in  their  prime, 

And  the  maidens  singing  in  the  leafy  bowers; 

Oh!  there  is  no  land  on  earth  like  this  fair  land  of  ours! 

Ho !   for  Carolina !  etc. 

Then,  for  Carolina,  brave  and  free,  and  strong, 
Sound  the  meed  of  praises  "in  story  and  in  song" 
From  her  fertile  vales  and  lofty  granite  towers. 
For  there  is  no  land  on  earth  like  this  fair  land  of  ours! 


Ho!   for  Carolina!  that's  the  land  for  me; 
In  her  happy  borders  roam  the  brave  and  free: 
And  her  bright-eyed  daughters  none  can  fairer  be; 
Oh!  it  is  a  land  of  love  and  sweet  liberty! 


"It  is  worth  more  to  the  cause  of  universal  educa- 
tion TO  strengtpien  those  who  are  fighting  for  it  than 
TO  fight  those  who  are  pulling  the  other  way.    Truth 

NEEDS    nothing    BUT    AGITATION    IN    A    FAIR,    OPEN    FIELD." 

Charles  Duncan  M elver. 


"jS^o  State  which  wili>  once  educate  its  motiieks  need 

HAVE  AXY   PEAK    ABOUT   FUTT^RE  ILLrJ'ETJACY. " ChavlcS  DvU- 

crm  ]\[rlrer. 


